Starting TOMORROW, join us for 3 days of great yarns at even greater prices!

• Friday, July 30th, 11:30 am – 5:00 pm
• Sunday, Aug. 1st, 11:30 am – 5:00 pm
• Monday, Aug. 2nd, 11:30 am – 7:00 pm

Visit the Studio for 50% off on:

• All Studio colors of Cupcake
• All Studio colors of Moonlight Mohair
• All Studio colors of Lion Cashmere Blend
• Select colors of Hometown USA
• Select colors of Homespun
• Select colors of Lion Wool
• Select colors of Babysoft
• Select colors of Fun Fur

…as well as select gift items like:

• Lantern Moon bags
• Della Q project totes
• Walker Yarn Tote
• and MORE!

As usual, this sale is ONLY in-store at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. It does NOT apply to LionBrand.com.

FREE Color Work-o-Rama

NO registration needed

Just come on by and enjoy some free demos, raffles & colors!

Friday Aug 20th 2:00 – 5:00 pm

ALL CLASSES AND EVENTS TAKE PLACE AT:
Lion Brand Yarn Studio
34 W. 15th Street New York, NY 10011

Come and…add a little color into your life!

We love color work! This day is all about introducing you to everything you can do with color.  There will be free demos on everything from fair isle to intarsia, to two-color Tunisian crochet, and MORE! We will have free patterns to hand out, raffle drawings and . . .

10% off yarn picked out to make a color work pattern

Free Demos

There will be 14 free demos run in two different locations in the Studio from 2:00 – 5:00 pm.  Check back to this blog for a full schedule.

Raffle Drawings

We will have three raffle drawings throughout the day for prizes. The more free demos you attend the more chances to win!

• Fill out a ticket at each free demo
• Stay for all three drawings
• Must be present to win

Raffle times:

• 2:20 pm
• 3:30 pm
• 4:20 pm

*No purchase necessary to enter raffle drawings.

Welcome to our regular Lion Brand Yarn Studio blog feature “Look What I Made”, where customers of the Lion Brand Yarn Studio, in New York City *, write about their projects.

Have you taken a class at the Studio and then made a wonderful project? Do you have a Lion Brand Yarn project you want to share? Send us your stories & pictures to: lookwhatimade@lionbrandyarn.com

Please note, many of our customers create one of a kind works with no pattern. If a pattern is used, we will include that information.

* If you are not a Studio customer, but have a project you’d like to share, sent it into LionBrand.com customer gallery. Click here for the link.

BY: Karen Durante

On January 3rd, 2010, I attended the kickoff of the Nicky Epstein Knitting on Top of the World knit-a-long at Lion Brand Studio. Mary Taylor, a knitter from Minnesota, was inspired by the movie, “Julie and Julia” to knit all 48 projects in Nicky’s book in 48 months. Lion Brand Studio was generous enough to offer their space to a wonderful group of knitters and a 10% discount to anyone who knitted along with Mary for any project in the book for the next four years. I have long been an admirer of Nicky’s work, and just say the words “discount” and “yarn” in the same sentence and I’m in!

My first project was the Northern Lights Cardigan. I made the sweater with Lion Brand Wool-Ease. Such an easy yarn to work with, I knitted most of the solid section at my company’s annual meeting without hardly having to look at my needles. I kept faithful to the pattern but did change the colors. All I did was swap colors in the chart for ones that suited me a little better. I am not much of a “blue” person and I like the contrast of a darker yoke with the lighter cream color in the lower section.

In February, my thoughts turn to pink for Valentine’s Day. I made the Copenhagen Shawl in the LB Collection Superwash Merino in the Peony color. Such beautiful yarn, gorgeous colors and so soft to the touch. Easy to work with, too. I kept faithful to the design, just added rhinestones when it was finished with a Brisk Set. The same principal as a beadazzler, but similarly used like a stapler.

March’s project was the Princess Bride Mittens. I used the LB Collection Superwash Merino again. You can fall in love with this yarn. I plan to make my son-in-law, Adam, a ribbed sweater out of the Denim color. Again, I stayed faithful to Nicky’s design, but swapped the colors in the chart for a different look. I used the Leaf color for my background color.

The St. Petersburg Camisole, while being beautifully designed, was not suited to my grandmother-style body. When I first saw it, loved the feather and fan double border and the pleated ribbon trimming. I immediately thought of a jacket with the same double border and long sleeves. This was not too difficult to do, but it did take some planning. I made the double border closer together by eliminating some length in the under layer, widened the shoulders, narrowed the sleeves and made them full length. I used Lion Brand Microspun in purple. I also changed the ribbon from the velvet pleated ribbon in Nicky’s design to a satin box pleated trim. It was lighter in weight than the original trim and better suited for the yarn that I used for the jacket.

(modeled by our own Claire)

Next, the Baltic Cuffs and Cap. When my daughter, Elaina saw the cuffs, she fell in love with them, but asked if I could make her a beret instead of the cap in the book. I again used the LB Collection Superwash Merino, and again I swapped colors in the chart for colors I wanted to use. I kept faithful to the design for the cuffs, but the beret needed to be designed from scratch. I searched the Internet until I found a beret that had a color chart and once I studied the basic design, I substituted the border for the same one I had used for the cuffs, just worked it in fewer rows. I used a pie-shaped outline on graph paper to draw in Nicky’s design for the top of the beret and added the sewn-on bobbles, just like the cap in the original design. The knitting went pretty swiftly after that. Elaina is very pleased with the results.

(modeled by our own Kendra)

I just finished the Bohus Swing Coat. I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease for this project. I have substituted a more pastel palette for the original.

Thus far, this has been an interesting journey for me. Even though I am a long-time knitter, some of the techniques, like knitting from the center of each square outwards to the borders of the squares for the Copenhagen Royal Shawl, I had never tried before. This has been quite a learning experience for me. I have greatly expanded my skills with this project. I plan to complete all 48 projects in the allotted four years. My advice to knitters is to not be afraid to try something different with a pattern that is beautiful, but doesn’t quite fit the intended recipient. You can always do something to make it your own.

To view the original patterns, come by the Studio and pick up your own copy of Nicky’s amazing book: Knitting on Top of the World.  If you are a fan of Nicky’s keep your eyes open for the announcement on this blog of her next master class & book signing special event!

Daina Taimina – Artist Talk & Book Signing

Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes

Thursday Aug 12th at 6:00 pm

ALL CLASSES AND EVENTS TAKE PLACE AT:

Lion Brand Yarn Studio
34 W. 15th Street
New York, NY 10011

Enter the amazing world of Hyperbolic Crochet.  Come be inspired with the sculptural beauty of what a little yarn & a little math can create.

Daina Taimina: “I thought if something can be made out of paper, it can also be crocheted, so I made my first crocheted hyperbolic planes in June 1997 by increasing stitches in constant ratio – after every two stitches I did an increase by one stitch. The number of stitches in each row grew exponentially, so after finishing my first small, very ruffled one I realized that to explore the hyperbolic plane I have to change the ratio of increase.”

LB Collection Superwash Merino & LB Wool Stainless Steel

RSVP e-mails received before July 21st will NOT be accepted.

See you all there!

FLICKS WITH STICKS AT THE STUDIO

Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets

Thursday July 29th, 7:30 pm

ALL CLASSES AND EVENTS TAKE PLACE AT:

Lion Brand Yarn Studio
34 W. 15th Street
New York, NY 10011

The last Thursday of every month is FREE MOVIE NIGHT at the Studio!

Every month we will feature a different movie that features a scene with knitting or crochet.

This months feature: Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets

RSVP e-mails received before July 21st will NOT be accepted.

Note: A previous version of this post listed the subject line as MOVIE-7/10 (meaning July, 2010).  There was some confusion, so the subject line was changed to reflect the day of the month, 7/29. Reservations made prior to this update will be honored.

HUGE SUMMER SALE!!!!!!

We have TOO many new yarns, new colors and new products for the fall, so something’s gotta go.

Friday July 30th 11:30 – 5:00 pm
Sunday Aug 1st 11:30 – 5:00 pm
Monday Aug. 2nd 11:30 – 7:00 pm

Visit the Studio for giant savings on:

• All colors of Cupcake
• All colors of Moonlight Mohair
• All colors of Lion Cashmere Blend
• Select colors of Hometown USA
• Select colors of Homespun
• Select colors of Lion Wool
• Select colors of Babysoft

…as well as select gift items like:

• Lantern Moon bags
• Della Q project totes
• Walker Yarn Tote
• and MORE!

As usual, this sale is ONLY in-store at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. It does NOT apply to LionBrand.com.

We were thrilled to have two amazing designers share their talents with us.  First the one of a kind Nicky Epstein came to teach her most popular class, Edging Magic & Flower Power.

As always Nicky brought TONS of samples to inspire.

After some expert guidance and some exited declarations of “I never would have thought of that!”, we all dove in making spirals, roses, ruffles, bobbles, flowers and more.  There was no limit to what could be made with yarn, needles, Nicky & imagination.

Here’s a few of the wonderful works in progress from the class (I think the purple one looks like a face):

As if that wasn’t wonderful enough, last Thursday the wonderful Debby Ware came to dazzle us with her whimsical designs.

Not to mention her own quirky sense of humor!

She showed us that sometimes a mistake turns into a designer’s inspiration…

and that knitting is all about having fun and being creative.  Even serious knitters don’t always have to be serious!

And, of course, she brought along tons of samples for us to enjoy and oogle.  It was an adorable explosion!!

After the talk, everyone enjoyed chatting with Debbie and getting her to sign their new books.  Scrumptious Toppers is her latest book of adorable head fashions for babies and children.

We really enjoyed having both of the creative and talented ladies visit us.  We certainly hope to see them again soon!

Special Sale: August Afghans

August is almost here! Don’t miss out on taking advantage of August Afghans!

Get a jump-start on afghans for the fall and winter. During the month of August when you purchase yarn for an entire afghan, get 15% off your yarn purchase.

Just let us know at the register what pattern you are using and that you are buying an afghan’s worth of yarn!  Happy yarncrafting!

*Sale exclusive to the Studio (not applicable to LionBrand.com). Cannot be applied to previous purchases. Cannot be combined with any other offers or coupons.

We are only one week into our window contest & the entries are pouring in!  Here’s Gina (the creator of our amazing ballot box).

The ballot box is hungry, so come feed it.  He (or she) also needs a name.  What do you think?  Post a comment

Don’t miss out on the chance to win $250!  Click here for contest details.

Welcome to our regular Lion Brand Yarn Studio blog feature “Look What I Made”, where customers of the Lion Brand Yarn Studio, in New York City *, write about their projects.

Have you taken a class at the Studio and then made a wonderful project? Do you have a Lion Brand Yarn project you want to share? Send us your stories & pictures to: lookwhatimade@lionbrandyarn.com

Please note, many of our customers create one of a kind works with no pattern.  If a pattern is used, we will include that information.

*If you are not a Studio customer, but have a project you’d like to share, sent it into LionBrand.com customer gallery. Click here for the link (you will need a free LionBrand.com account to submit). Please click here if you would like to view the LionBrand.com Customer Gallery.

BY GRACE

I dyed the LB Collection Superwash Merino. One of the great things about dyeing with superwash merino is that there really isn’t any danger of felting the yarn. That makes it a really safe yarn to start with, plus the yardage is fantastic. It’s also has great colors that would work well as a base for over-dyeing. The color this skein started out as was Antique white.

I unwound the skein onto my yarn swift with the umbrella as large as it would go to make a long hank which I pre-soaked the hank in cool water and white vinegar.  I used Jacquard Acid dyes in Spruce (green) and Periwinkle (blue) and Grape flavored KoolAid (purple).

I use my enamel pot exclusively for dyeing, so no food stuff in it ever! The KoolAid would be ok, but Acid Dye should not be ingested or inhaled. Basically, I arranged the hanks in the bottom of the pot and covered it with a fresh water and vinegar. Brought the heat up to a simmer. Then I made up 3 concentrated dye pastes which I applied to the yarn in rows across yarn. Spruce across the top, periwinkle across the middle, and grape across the bottom.

Once the dye has finished “striking” (all color gone form the water and into the yarn) I removed the heat and let the yarn cool. When cool, I rinsed, squeezed, and hung the hank to dry over a plastic hanger.

Some white still showed in places where the dye didn’t fully “strike” but I liked how that made the yarn look more variegated. I knit a basic  hat with this yarn and then I knit a lace swatch with the remainder.

To check out more of Grace’s handiwork, read about how she overdyed Sock-Ease.  Click here to read more.

UPDATE:  Petrina Hicks has identified herself as the talented dyer responsible for the beautiful dyed Fisherman’s Wool.  Thanks Petrina!!

Here’s a beautiful skein of LB Collection Pure Wool.

Here’s a customer’s LB Collection Pure Wool & (I wouldn’t have thought of this) Fishermen’s Wool Tweed!  Look at the close up of that Tweed all wound up.  Isn’t it brilliant!

Our own Celia made this shawl from 4 balls of LB Collection Cashmere – color Natural – is called the “Eyelet Shawl” by Vikki Harding.

BY CELIA

I had been itching to try hand-painting my own yarn after seeing some amazing results from friends’ and colleagues’ experiments, and decided to finally put a languishing Easter Egg dye kit to good use. I dissolved the food coloring tablets according to package directions, dipped and dabbled the yarn hank, and gently heated the yarn to set the dye.  It was so much fun to watch the colors gradually shift while knitting each stitch, remembering how the yarn had looked at each stage of the process!